Bia! Zine issue 3 contributors
The third issue of Bia! Zine is made up of the stories, words, images and art of almost 50 contributors of colour and migrants across Ireland.
About our contributors
Aisha Hamdulay
Aisha Hamdulay is a South African multidisciplinary artist and activist who believes deeply in the power of art as a tool for social change, reflection and healing. Her artistic work, ranging from photography, poetry, film and visual art; explores themes of justice, intergenerational trauma, love, and power. Through poetry and creative expression, Aisha seeks to create space for reflection, resistance, and healing.
Amano De Londra Miura
Amano De Londra Miura is a singer, poet and cultural caretaker with roots in Ireland and Japan. Raised in Kerry by her Irish family, Amano began a tender journey of reconnection with her Japanese heritage eight years ago. Her creative practice stems from the seeds of traditional arts and Irish language to cultivate "new traditions" through her animist, ecological, and mixed-ethnic lens.
Areej Rahmani
Areej Rahmani is an Irish-Pakistani poet, writer and community builder. As a thought daughter she cares deeply about connection, creativity, warmth, kindness and cups of tea. She is a very saturnian girlie and hopes to continue gaining wisdom, experience and to have a good time wherever she may be!
Avril Shakira Villar
Avril Shakira Villar is a writer and youth leader from the Philippines. She is an alum of WriteGirl LA. She is one of the Top 3 finalists in the English Poetry category of the 2025 Maningning Miclat Art Foundation competition. Her poem was selected for the Editor's Pick Award for Summer 2025 by Words With Weight. She won first place in the Poetry Competition by Beloved Summer Zine. She is the author of the debut poetry collection i live because i almost died. Her poems are featured in printed books of RCC Muse, Arcana Poetry Press, Viridine Literary, Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine, Renard Press, and others, alongside 31 poems, a song, and an essay published online in various international literary magazines.
Azeezat Muniru (Planetwritten)
Azeezat Muniru (or Planetwritten in the world of words) writes about the things that bring her up and wear her down. In a world that’s constantly changing, she copes with the whiplash of it all through poetry.
Blezzing
"Blezzing Dada (she/they), from Dublin, Ireland, is a multiple award-winning Black-Irish mental health activist, speaker & blogger who’s an outspoken passionate on various social justice issues, especially on a focus of intersectionality within the mental health spaces, shaped by liberatory care, transformative justice, harm reduction & anti-capitalist frameworks.
Accompanied with her own lived experiences with all things, being multiple disabled (chronically ill & neurodivergent) and mad, they shed perspectives, uncommonly heard for Black & other ethnic minority + further marginalised communities in Ireland.
Being involved with numerous community groups, she can be found participating in mutual aid work, podcasts & writing to spread awareness: through empathy and education"
Cebsile Mhlanga
Cebsile Sandra Mhlanga is an educator who holds a CELTA certificate from Cambridge, an MA in English Language and Literature from UNICAF University in Zambia and BA in Humanities + PGCE from the University of Swaziland. She's been in this field for nineteen years and is currently teaching English Language to migrant students from diverse backgrounds in Ireland. Her passion for 'wordsmithing' is evident in various articles and poems shared with various publications inclusive of 'The Eagle' a SNAT magazine, 'Dubelong' a poetry anthology and Bia Zine amongst others. In addition to writing, she is a debate and public speaking mentor where she nurtures talent in the youth to be able to freely and eloquently transcribe whatever they perceive effectively.
Chloe Balisacan
Chloe is a final year English student at University College Dublin originally from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Christopher Salcedo
I am a father, husband, homie and baker.
Ciaran Bohan
Chef based in Dublin. Trying to share my identity through the food I cook
Deeba Javadpour
Deeba is Iranian-Irish and has lived in Dublin since she was 9. Before moving to back to Ireland, she lived in Tehran. She is currently a PhD student at the University of York in England where she studies the social implications of AI on labour and the workplace. In her spare time, she likes to knit and crochet.
Diana Siwela & Thoiba Ahmed
Street Feast facilitators in Cork and Letterkenney.
Eche
I came to writing not because I wanted to, but because I had to. It was my answer or at least part of my answer to the existential dread of mortality; if it were ever a question. Art makes sense of mortality to me.
So I am Eche, I contribute art and whatever beauty life offers through many media, but more overtly through poetry and music.
Erick Carrillo a.k.a El Michelín
My name is Erick Carrillo. I was born in Mexico City, and four and a half years ago I moved to Dublin. I write essays about everyday life and food, and I also co-created a project called Fondita Mestiza, which builds bridges between art and food and is based in Dublin.
Fiyin Oluokun, Eduard Valenzuela, Brian O’Curnain
Fiyin Oluokun is a mixed media visual artist and architecture student whose work explores identities and how environments shape and morph these identities. The subject of their work is pulled out of small encounters, gestures and interactions. Fiyin translates these simultaneously personal and wholly universal moments into visual works that are both spatial and experiential.
Eduard Valenzuela is a Part I architect from Dublin, currently completing his Master’s degree at Central Saint Martins in London. Winner of the Thornton Education Trust Prize, his work explores themes of representation and identity in the public realm, with a particular focus on the transformative potential of youth culture.
Brian Ó Curnáin is an architecture student from Conamara, Galway. He has studied at UCD and TU Delft, worked at the Venice Biennale, and contributed to the As an Gceo exhibition. A recipient of the TET Prize and the John Meagher Bursary, his work explores culture, community, and public space.
Gracy Nasralla
Hello! I am a Dublin based poet/writer who has a passion for story telling. I have performed in spoken word and poetry events around the city. My favourite thing to write about is the childhood memories that make us who we are today.
Hiu Yan Chelsia Choi
Hiu Yan Chelsia Choi is from Hong Kong and based in Belfast. A food science graduate and former cheesemaker, she is currently navigating her double life of working in a professional kitchen and studying Gastronomy & Food Studies in TU Dublin, while keeping her sanity.
Ines Tola
Ines Tola is a Guadeloupean multi disciplinary artist based in Ireland. Music (initially under the name Ines Khai) was her main creative outlet (@_inestola_), but she started exploring visual arts (@inestheartist) and writing (@inesthestoryteller) more these last years creating songs, short stories and art prints inspired by ancestors and spirituality.
Ivie Okome
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Jane Eghaghe
I’m Irish-born with Nigerian roots, and I write reflective pieces that explore identity, memory, and belonging. My work centres on personal storytelling and the subtle ways culture is carried across generations. I’m interested in the spaces between worlds and the quiet inheritances that shape who we are.
Lauryn Creamer Nwadike
Lauryn Creamer Nwadike is an Irish–Nigerian textile designer and painter She holds a BA (Hons) in Textiles and Surface Design from the National College of Art and Design and completed the PRISMA residency in Lisbon over summer 2025, culminating in three exhibitions of her work.
Drawing on her bicultural heritage, Nwadike’s work explores questions of identity and belonging. Through painting and textiles she engages with memory, narrative, and materiality. Her interdisciplinary practice reflects the intersection of personal memory and collective experience.
Luxmi Shanmuganantha
Luxmi (she/her) is a Dublin-based writer originally from Toronto. Drawing on experience in wine bars, restaurants, supper clubs, and urbanism, her work explores what food reveals about ourselves, our cities, and the cultures we inhabit. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Food Studies and Gastronomy at Technological University Dublin.
M. M. Coelho
M. M. Coelho is a Brazilian–Irish writer whose work explores grief, migration, spirituality and women’s interior lives. Coelho holds a BA in History and an MA in Creative Writing at DCU.
Maryla Oshodi
Maryla Oshodi (MariiArtzz) a Nigerian Irish artist based in Cork, working in both digital and traditional mediums. Her work celebrates the intersection of fashion, culture, and art, often drawing inspiration from fashion moments and diverse identities. Through vibrant colours and expressive detail, she transforms style into timeless visual storytelling.
Mili Merve Sagit
Merve Sagit is a Turkish interdisciplinary artist based in Ireland. Her work explores memory, food culture, and everyday rituals through photography, textile, and experimental print processes. Growing up between shared tables, home cooking, and traditional Turkish food practices, she became interested in how taste and smell carry emotional and cultural memory. Her projects often use organic materials, recycled fabrics, and cyanotype printing to reflect on nourishment, migration, and belonging. Through garments, prints, and small publications, Sagit transforms personal food memories into visual stories, connecting domestic experiences with broader questions about identity, sustainability, and the relationship between people, land, and culture.
Nina Briggs
Nina Briggs is an American writer and data scientist based in Belfast. She is the founder of the Migrant Workers’ Union NI and has written academically on migrant rights, as well as for Nós on Irish language and migration.
ola aki
an artist within the animation industry that enjoys capturing small moments of life through light and colour
Omowumi Obi
I am a Black-British Psychology graduate who has lived in Dublin for nearly 10 years. As someone interested in behaviour and mental health, I recognise how culture and heritage shapes the person that you are and the person that you try to become. My work is deeply rooted in being a Nigerian woman who is also British and Irish, the way that these cultures conflict and the way in which they are individually highlighted under different spotlights.
Ozgur Unlu
Hi, I'm Ozgur—living in Dublin since 2022, originally from Turkey. I'm a ceramics graduate and art teacher, love traveling and filming videos. Food is my passion; I adore trying different cuisines here in Dublin.
Radhika Iyer
Originally from Malaysia, Radhika Iyer lives in Dundalk, Ireland. She has been writing short stories and creative non-fiction exploring the female struggle within domestic violence, identity struggle and discrimination for over 30 years. Her short stories ‘The Unmarried Widow’ and ‘Bride of Flames’ won prizes in Malaysia in the early 1990s. Her debut Ebook collection of short stories 'Why Are You Here?' was published in 2021. A creative non-fiction piece ‘We Should Have Jumped’ was published in a Mental Health Anthology in 2022. Her work has been featured on RTE Radio and one piece ‘Am I? (On Common Ground)’ was shortlisted in the IMRO Radio Awards in October 2021. She received the Agility Award in September 2022. ‘Look Outside’ was long listed in the Fishamble Flash Fiction competition in 2022. ‘A Bland Farewell’ won 3rd prize in the Southword Journal Flash Fiction competition in July 2023. During her writer’s residency at An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk (from July-September 2023), the title story from her eBook, ‘Why Are You Here?’ was adapted into an immersive, performance piece which was staged in October 2024, and sold out all eight shows.
Stephanie Fox
Hi I am Stephanie, I am 19 years old and i am a fine art print student at the National College of Art and Design!
subhashini goda
Subhashini Goda is a multidisciplinary artist and an academic specialising in the Indian dance form Bharatanatyam, and was the recipient of the Emma O'Kane Bursary Award 2024 and one of Dublin Fringe Festival's Weft Studio Artists 2024-25. Her interdisciplinary works are grounded in reconsidering how bharatanatyam is perceived, practised, and performed in varied translocal contexts and has been increasingly invested in community building and sustainable practices. Since moving to Ireland in 2021, she has showcased her work at multiple festivals and has delivered movement workshops at reputed arts centres and is one of the Associate Artists at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan. Having completed a PhD in cultural/dance anthropology, she is currently the South Dublin Intercultural Artists’ Network Coordinator at Rua Red, and organises Creative Brew, a monthly artists meet-and-greet at An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk.
Surabhi Supekar
Surabhi is currently pursuing graduate studies in Gastronomy from Boston University. She is originally from India, having lived in the US for a few decades, she recently relocated to Ireland. She is interested in exploring memory and nostalgia through food.
Tamilore Rivera-Clinton
Tamilore Clinton is an award-winning poet and anthropologist based in Dublin, Ireland. Her work explores themes of home, womanhood and desire. She has performed and published poems globally.
Tanya Bridgeman & Abi Ighodaro
Tanya Bridgeman is a writer, performer, and theatre-maker working across verbatim theatre, poetry, and performance. Her practice centres on storytelling, collaboration, and amplifying lived experience through text and embodiment. She is particularly interested in creating work that values participation, intimacy, and care, and in developing new forms of audience engagement within live and festival contexts.
Abi Ighodaro is a multidisciplinary artist based in Dublin whose practice explores memory, ritual, and belonging through socially engaged, process-led work. Her projects often combine visual art, performance, and collaborative methodologies, foregrounding listening, gathering, and translation as artistic acts. She is interested in how everyday experiences — food, movement, conversation — can become sites of shared meaning and cultural reflection.
Tobi Olanlokun
Tobi is a Nigerian-Irish writer, raised in both countries. He writes with the intent to weave his own personal emotions, observations and experiences into his writing and connect with others, not just in poetry but other literary forms.
Tshego Putu
Tshego Putu is a South African writer based in Dublin. She enjoys travelling across Africa and exploring food, identity, and society through comparative cultural analysis. She once expected to spend her days as a development economist but now works in tech.
Úna-Minh Kavanagh
Úna-Minh Kavanagh is an award-winning activist, writer and game developer based in Dublin but proudly from Kerry. Adopted from Vietnam as a baby in 1991, she's been in Ireland since she was six weeks old. She grew up in the Kingdom in a bilingual household where her grandfather was a native Irish speaker and her mother was a teacher. Úna-Minh is a published author of Anseo, an essayist and an Irish language speaker. She thinks and writes and writes and thinks!
Susan Wamucii Mwaniki
Susan Wamucii Mwaniki is an emerging, multifaceted author with a background in civil engineering. Writing since the age of eight, she launched her blog, Wamucii's World, at 17, sharing personal essays on identity, belonging, and the African immigrant experience. Her nonfiction explores her multicultural identity spanning Botswana, Kenya, and South Africa, while her fiction leans toward romance. Her poetry defies genre, purely guided by emotions. By day, she's designing water pipeline infrastructure; by night, she crafts compelling narratives. Beyond writing, she is an active member of her Christian church and enjoys borrowing more books than she can read from the local library. She currently lives in Ireland.
Wasii Ajayi
Wasii is a poet born and raised in Blanchardstown in Ireland. His work centres around diasporic experiences and themes of home.
Zainab Boladale
Zainab Boladale is a Nigerian-Irish journalist, presenter and author known for her captivating storytelling across diverse platforms including television, film and print. She marked a historic milestone in 2017, becoming the first Black woman to present Irish TV news. Zainab's creative contributions include her impactful short film Worthy, which premiered at the GAZE Film Festival in 2023. Her debut Young Adult novel, Braids Take a Day, published by The O’Brien Press in 2024, quickly garnered acclaim with an An Post Irish Book Award nomination.
Plus featured work by
Anna McDonald-Anakaa
Czacarri Muli
Dounia Couasnon
Lin Zhou
RUPO
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